Since I’ve been teaching a mid-week study on Church History, I became interested in some of the background of the Reformation. I found out it was the “holy Roman emperor” Charles V who actually called Martin Luther to the famous Diet of Worms of 1521, where he was put on trial for his supposedly radical, revolutionary views and statements against the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. Some of the various articles I read on this period mentioned the difficulties Charles V had to confront at the time, which kept him from doing away with Luther as he would’ve liked. Studying about this and how reformed ideas came to England also brought up some background facts about problems the pope of the time, Clement VII, was facing. I wanted to know more, so I began investigating and reading about these men and the events of their times. I thought it so interesting that I just had to share it with you.
First of all, I didn’t know that Charles V was the grandson of Ferdinand II of Aragon, the king who, together with his queen Isabella of Castile, united Spain and authorized the voyages of Christopher Columbus which resulted in the discovery of the Americas. I didn’t know Charles V’s mother was Joanna, who was later said to be mad, and that his father was a Hapsburg, son of Maximilian I, the holy Roman emperor. That’s why, Charles V (who is also known as Charles I of Spain), could rule over Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, which included the Low Countries of today’s Holland and Belgium, as well as parts of today’s Germany, northern Italy, and Austria, as well as various other parts of Europe.
I didn’t know that Charles always had problems with Francis I, the king of France, and that these two monarchs were constantly battling with one another over territories, some of which were in northern Italy. I didn’t realize their conflicts caused the pope to get involved in an effort to bring peace, which in turn resulted in Charles V actually marching on Rome and taking that pope, Clement VII, prisoner for a period of about 6 months. The pope actually escaped by disguising himself as a beggar and fleeing.
I didn’t realize that it was at about this same time that the king of England, Henry VIII, appealed to the pope to grant him an annulment to his marriage with Catherine of Aragon, who happened to be Charles V’s aunt, the man who’d captured the pope and held him captive! That helped me understand how it was that the pope, having been threatened and imprisoned by Catherine’s uncle, would not at that time feel very inclined to grant the king of England’s request to annul his marriage to her! As a result, of course, Henry ended up breaking with the Catholic Church, which resulted in the formation of what today is called the Church of England (the Anglican church, which, in America, was called the Episcopal Church.)
I didn’t realize that Charles V was a devout Catholic who hated what Luther stood for, and he declared him an outlaw. But Charles couldn’t have Luther killed, because Luther was under the protection of German princes, and Charles needed the Germans on his side. He was, after all, a Hapsburg, an Austrian who spoke German and identified far more with the Netherlands and Germany than he did with Spain. The Germans were tired of having Rome exercise so much authority over their lands and their finances. They were tired of having to send money to Rome for its building projects, like the Basilica of St. Peter. So when Luther and other reformers said people no longer had to submit to the Pope or the Roman Catholic Church, that was just fine with the German princes!
I was amazed at the complicated problems both Charles V and Clement VII were facing during these times. I thought I had problems, but when I read about these guys, I realized mine were minuscule in comparison!
For one thing, imagine the difficulties when the Reformation came about. The Church that had been unified for more than a thousand years was in danger of breaking up. That ecclesial disunity also threatened the political unity of Europe. Wars were breaking out all over the place! Emperor Charles V wanted desperately to unify the factions, so he called for the Colloquy of Regensburg in 1541 to try to bring the Catholics and Protestants back together. But such agreement just wasn’t possible.
Meanwhile, Charles was also facing a terrifying threat from the Ottoman Turks in his eastern territories and the king of France on his western boundaries, as well as various rebellions within his empire. He had to pay for all his mercenary troops so they’d fight all the battles he had going on, and that put a huge financial strain on his empire. He just wanted these religious groups to get along! Of course, he was a devout Catholic, and would’ve had Luther executed, but as mentioned above, Luther was protected by German princes, and Charles needed to get along with those princes. He’d had clashes with the popes and the Catholic Church he loved and agreed with, and had taken Clement VII captive for a while.
I was amazed to discover the king of France, Francis I, had even allied himself with Suleiman the Magnificent, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire in an effort to defeat Charles! The Muslims took over Budapest, Hungary, their pirates raided Spanish coasts and threatened Italy, and ruled the whole eastern Mediterranean. It was no small threat! Charles ended up allying himself with Henry VIII of England, and even with the Muslim Safavid Empire of Persia in his efforts against the Ottomans! It was particularly interesting to me that Charles had called Luther to the Diet of Worms in 1521, where Luther made his famous stand, but originally, Charles thought the whole flap was nothing more than “an argument among monks.” He had no idea how big the issues were or how far things would eventually go!
I was also intrigued by things I learned about the popes of this period. The pope when Luther first became famous was Leo X (Pope from 1513-1521). Luther so angered Leo X that the pope excommunicated him. Leo is said to have been quite worldly, and there are even scholars who say he was homosexual or a pedophile (the Catholic Church has had problems with this sort of thing a long time), but these accusations have never been satisfactorily proven. Leo X has often been criticized for not dealing definitively with the Reformation early on, but he, like Charles V, apparently didn’t appreciate how serious the threat to church unity really was.
When Leo died, Adrian VI took over, but he was only Pope from 1522-1523, then he died. The man who was to become his successor as Pope Clement VII (Giulio d’Medici, of the famous Medici family of Italy), was of “illegitimate” birth (his mother was not known), so the Catholic hierarchy would’ve had a problem naming him pope. Fortunately for them, Pope Leo X was his cousin, and he pronounced him legitimate by a special papal “dispensation” back when Leo was first named pope, clearing the way for Clement’s papacy later on. Clement was supposedly very handsome, a talented musician, and brilliant at statesmanship. He was certainly ahead of his times scientifically, as he recognized Copernicus’ theory that the Sun was the center of the solar system 100 years before other Catholic authorities. But when he came to the papacy, man, did he inherit some serious problems! Check out what I found on Wikipedia:
“The complex political situation of the 1520s thwarted Clement’s intentions [to unify Christendom]. Inheriting the problem of Martin Luther’s growing Protestant Reformation in Northern Europe; a vast power struggle in Italy between Europe’s two most powerful kings, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Francis I of France, each of whom demanded that the Pope choose a side; and Turkish invasions of Eastern Europe led by Suleiman the Magnificent; Clement’s problems were exacerbated by King Henry VIII of England’s contentious divorce, resulting in England breaking away from the Catholic Church; and in 1527, souring relations with Emperor Charles V leading to the violent Sack of Rome, during which the Pope was imprisoned. After escaping confinement in the Castel Sant’Angelo, Clement — with few economic, military, or political options remaining — compromised the Church’s and Italy’s independence by allying with his former jailor, Emperor Charles V.”
So I guess Europe was a real “Peyton Place” for those old enough to remember that show. Both Charles V and Pope Clement VII had overwhelming problems all around them, on every front you could imagine! In case you’ve ever wished you could be an emperor or a pope, I guess this story shows such places of “prestige” or power are not all they’re cracked up to be, eh? Whatever problems we may be facing, I’ll dare say, are certainly less daunting than those faced by these men! No thanks – I’ll just content myself with obscurity!
As I said, I just thought you might be as interested as I was to discover this background information. It certainly adds some detail to what was going on during the period we’ve been looking at, the time of the second major schism of Christ’s Church, the Reformation.